(In one state does not remain the condition of
world, Every peak endures decline and decline every peak endures).

The past 6 decades of NC hegemony in Kashmir
had forgotten this divine rule, holding to power against any genuine
representative process. There are too many historical examples of rulers and
leaders having fallen from grace and power as anarchy took over, yet many of
the modern political figures have failed to learn from history. When Mr. Omar
took over the reins of power in J&K, many people had hoped that he would be
different than his predecessors and extend his mind and heart towards the
sufferings of common people, but all such hopes were soon buried under an
oppressive and anarchical rule. Omens of how things
would shape up in his rule were visible the very day he took over power when an innocent civilian, deaf and dumb Abdur Rashid Reshi of Veer Saran
Pahalgam was shot dead by Indian forces close to the gates of his palatial
Gupkar residence, and Omar did nothing more than pay some lip service to this
murder.

The irony of this date, 6th Jan (2009)
when Omar took oath as the CM of J&K, was not lost on people in Kashmir,
for it was exactly on January 6th (1993) when Indian paramilitary
BSF troopers massacred 55 innocents at Sopore and set the town ablaze. Omar not
wanting to learn from this recent past of Kashmir, at best pretended to be a
mute spectator, at worst ensured inaction against culprits, encouraging
killings and torture of civilians in the coming years. His first priority seemed to take back the Muslim Auqaf Trust just days after taking over (19th
Jan 2009), which had been used by NC as a political tool for decades, even
while real religious freedom was being severely curbed in the valley. Ashoora
and Milaad processions banned, many pro freedom leaders barred from offering
Friday prayers and the central Mosque in Srinagar, Jamia Masjid sealed off on
many Fridays in the coming years of his rule.

With every day, every week, every month of
his rule came news of killings by his forces, of torture, of dispossession and
oppression. Just weeks after Omar took over, Indian army shot dead 28 year old
Fayaz Ahmed Mir (on 2nd Feb 2009) in Khurhama of north Kashmir
Kupwara. Very next day Indian army killed Ali Muhammad in custody and tortured
his old father in Dewan, Bandipora. While Omar chose to look the other way,
such killings continued with impunity; 21st Feb in Bomai, 6th
March in Nowhatta (Shahid Ahmad Ahangar & Shabir Ahmad Baba shot by India forces), 18th March
at Khaigam Pakeherpora 37 year old carpenter Ghulam Mohiuddin murdered by
Indian forces at his home. If I were to note down the names and details of all
those killed in his regime, then this article would surely run into hundreds of
pages, not to speak of the thousands of civilians tortured under his rule.

His first major test came during the Shopian
double rape and murder, where all logic and leads pointed to rape and
murder by forces of the state. He jumped the gun, first ‘describing
it a case of drowning’, soon changing his statements to ‘Neloofar and Asiya (the two victims) 'were
like his sisters' and he, as a
brother, feels the pain of the tragedy that has befallen the victims' family’ but later switched to
witch-hunting the victim family and denied them any justice. While adults won’t
drown in ankle deep water, her ensured that the Shopian truth was buried under
a state cover-up. During protests against the Shopian rape and murder, more
than 400 protestors were injured at the hands of Indian forces; civilian lives lost.

If 2009 did not burn Kashmir enough, anarchy continued in 2010 when more than 128 lives were lost at the hands of government
forces, most of them young kids, sparked by the Machil fake encounter by Indian
army followed by the killing of teenager Tufail Matto who was killed by police
while returning from tuitions. Having grown no wiser from his mishandling of
2009, Omar continued to act as a mute spectator while his forces went on a
killing rampage across Kashmir, without any sense of guilt or remorse.
Not only did his government stay aloof to these events, it has
since been dragging its feet in providing any justice to the victims of
2010, despite clear court orders in many cases. Morality becomes a corpse when
a government remorselessly continues not only to govern after killing so many
innocent kids, but also tragically continues to stall justice to all these
victims. Innocent killings becoming a norm under this government, such
tragedies did not end with 2010. Civilians continued to be killed by state
forces in the following years; be in Uri, Rafiabad, Sopore, Shopian, Islamabad, Srinagar or Kupwara and
the state government continued to look the other way.

Such was the political arrogance of NC that
when during the 2010 turmoil, Dr. Farooq Abdulla on being asked to comment on
these killings commented ‘Kashmir ko goli maro’
(Let Kashmir be shot). In recent time same Dr. Farooq Abdulla claimed ‘Kashmiri
chor nahi maha chor hai’ (Kashmiris are not just petty thieves, they are
biggest thieves).

While human rights were trampled mercilessly
by this government, even at the governance front it fared no better than a
despotic arrangement. The government not only lacked any economic vision or plan,
it played as a meek slave in front of exploitative Indian corporations. While
old hydro electric projects that have been for long overdue for transfer to the
state were still being retained illegally by NHPC, depriving the state of badly
needed resources, this government handed more projects to this ‘East India
Company’, robbing Kashmir of more rights than before. Not only was this failure
of taking back power projects as willful diligence, it was also a sign of the
utter weakness of this government before New Delhi, trading our rights and
resources for crumbs of staying in chair. On the job generation front, a total
disregard of talent utilization and fair play was visible when the government
not only implemented a exploitative job policy where on the one hand in the few
recruitments that ever happened highly qualified youngsters were paid lesser
than causal laborers, while on the other hand retired blue eyed persons were
bestowed with extensions or new posts at the cost the unemployed. Corruption
not only peaked under this rule, it was practiced brazenly with least regard
for any accountability. State sponsored corruption was evident with its refusal
to act against big sharks who survived with political connections, the land
scams at prime tourist locations, the continuity of accused politicians in
power and the rendering of state vigilance, accountability commissions, human
rights bodies or RTI act as toothless tigers. It was this government that
cloaked the truth about mass graves even when thousands were discovered across
Kashmir, in many cases innocent civilians who had been earlier subject to
custodial disappearance, having been identified buried in them.

This government not only utilized draconian
tools like PSA to curb dissenting voices, even jailing juveniles in adult jails
under this act, it also parroted the ‘AFSPA removal’ line to fool the masses,
while making no efforts to actually see it out. To its embarrassment, after
Omar government had been touting the removal of AFSPA, New Delhi punctured his
claims by stating that ‘no proposal
had been received from Omar government for revocation of AFSPA’. So much
for the theatrics of this government!

On February 8th (2013) at 8 PM Indian Home Minister
Shinde called Omar “who joh hum ne baat
ki thee, who kal subah hogi’ (the thing we had talked about earlier will happen
tomorrow morning). Afzal Guru was hanged early morning next day at 8 AM, without
his family having either been informed or allowed for any last meeting. Even
his mortal remains were never returned to his family. While Omar pretended
‘innocent’ in this political murder, Indian media reported that not only had
New Delhi sought Omar’s opinion ten days before, he had even ‘told Shinde that the hanging would have
greater consequences if executed in the summer months’, clearly indicating his preference for
the hanging in winter. Kashmir again erupted in protests and yet again many
innocent lives were lives at the hands of government forces. The enslaved meekness
exhibited by this government before New Delhi is so striking and cold when put in
comparison with state governments of Tamil Nadu and Punjab, who not only pushed
for mercy of convicts from their state awaiting hanging but also got such
convicts reprieved, even while such convicts had not been sentenced like Afzal
on mere circumstantial evidence.

Elections in Kashmir have always been the
least representative political exercise of this subcontinent, with earlier
decades starting with forced unopposed contests during the time of Shiekh
Abdulla and Bakshi, in later years resorting to massive rigging (1987) and then
forcible herding of voters (1996). Post and including 1996 it has mostly been a
poll boycott which ‘decides’ who gets to rule. Even from within
the little percentage of voters who do vote in Kashmir, there has been a gradual
shift away from NC. According to figures available, NC polled a mere 11. 1 %
votes in the recent elections compared to the 19.11 % it had reportedly
‘polled’ in 2009 parliament elections. This percentage not only takes away the
‘representative’ character of this government, it mocks at the very ‘electoral
process’, with almost 90% electorate not reposing any trust in this government.
While PDP must have walked away victorious in the recent election, a word of
caution for them; many of the votes polled by you were not as much pro PDP as
they were anti NC. To retain those votes in the next election you will need to
learn and unlearn a lot from the autocratic ways of NC. Also both parties need
to understand that all these votes do not make them a representative to the Kashmir
dispute, such elections being only for the administration of basic governance
systems here. Had elections or votes signified any representation in the
resolution of Kashmir dispute, 70% of people in Kashmir would not boycott
elections.

Learning is as important a process as is
unlearning. If Omar did not learn and unlearn for the past five and a half
years, he will not in a few months now. Sharing of his email id to ‘learn about
the reason of NC’s defeat’ in another pointer to his disconnect, when hardly 2%
of the state population has internet access, and hardly a fraction of that
minority who have internet connection do ever vote. If he was really unaware of
the reasons for this fall, and was so disconnected from the realities on
ground, did he even deserve to be in this chair in the first place?

While there can no redemption for the
colossal crimes committed against civilians during this government, Omar could
at least make a start while he was at the end of his tenure.

As a part of some cosmetic measures to please
the gullible pubic, this government is likely to offer some sops; like
revocation of sms ban, enhancement of retirement limit or even releasing some youngsters
it has imprisoned. But revoking the sms ban will not offer any justice to the
kids it killed, nor will the extension of retirement age offer any hope to the
hundreds of thousands highly qualified uneducated deprived of fair employment
opportunities. Nor will the release of a few youth guarantee that the impunity
enjoyed by oppressive state forces is lessened to any extent, an impunity that has
the potential to make victims of these young anytime in the near future. If the
NC government really wants to repent for its misrule and oppressive tenure, it
should immediately

1)Revoke AFSPA
by ceasing DAA (disturbed area act), this lies within the domain of the state
assembly.

2)Revoke PSA,
an act that the state has used mercilessly to silence opposition voices.

3)Release all
political prisoners and youngsters who have minor charges against them.

4)Withdraw all
new projects from NHPC, and force transfer of operations from NHPC in power
projects overdue to the state.

5)Prosecute
all cases lying with the state accountability commission, especially the ones
against politicians and bureaucrats.

Seems a tall
order? Well, knowing Omar Abdulla he will do none of these; instead resort to
cosmetic means of short term populism failing which he may even revert to
vendetta based politics where those who criticized his working were targeted and
destroyed. Politics following the ‘winner takes it all’ herd, till Omar realizes
this lost opportunity, the opposition will have dented more of NC base in the
next elections.